-
Indonesia survivors remember 7th anniversary of Bali bombings
-
Philippines on hunt for kidnapped priest
-
Chronology of Abu Sayyaf kidnappings
-
Thailand
Gunmen killed three Muslim civilians and wounded a local administrator in four separate shootings in Yala, Narathiwat, and Pattani provinces. Two hundred soldiers and police raided an Islamic school in Narathiwat province, detaining 60 students and teachers.
-
Somalia
An American man has been arrested in northern Kenya while trying to enter an area of Somalia controlled by Islamists. Heavily armed Ethiopian troops crossed the border and entered three villages west of the town of Beledweyne. Jordan Abu Mohammad al Maqdisi, the spiritual mentor of Abu Mussab al Zarqawi, expressed his public support for Shabaab and called on Somalis to help the group.
-
Afghanistan
US and Afghan forces killed 28 Taliban fighters and detained nine more in Kandahar province. The Taliban killed three Afghan soldiers in an IED attack in Paktia province. President Karzai said helicopters have been shuttling Taliban fighters and other terrorists into northern Afghanistan.
-
Iran
President Ahmadinejad said he sees no obstacles to further nuclear talks with the P5+1. Secretary of State Clinton issued a warning to Iran during a diplomatic visit to Russia. Former President Khatami announced that protests to Iran’s presidential election last summer will not die.
-
Charges dropped against Hafiz Saeed, Pakistan’s Teflon Don
This news shouldn’t surprise the readers of the Threat Matrix and The Long War Journal. The Lahore High Court has dismissed terrorism charges against Lashkar-e-Taiba / Jamaat-ud-Dawa leader Hafiz Saeed. From The Times of India: Pakistan’s Lahore High Court on Monday dismissed the FIRs lodged under anti-terrorism act against JuD chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed, who is the main accused in the 26/11 [Mumbai] terror attacks. “Anti-terror law does not apply to Saeed,” the high court said while dismissing the two cases adding he could not be charged under the act as his outfit was not banned in the country. A…
-
Suicide bomber kills 41 in Pakistan’s northwest
The Taliban’s terror counteroffensive is in full swing with the fourth major attack in seven days. A suicide bomber detonated a vehicle packed with explosives in a bazaar in the district of Shangla.
-
Pakistan
Pakistan bombs region once declared Taliban-free
-
Joint forces assault al Qaeda base in Afghan East
US and Afghan forces killed 18 extremists and detained one during a raid on an al Qaeda base in the mountains in Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan. An al Qaeda commander was the target of the attack.
-
An early account of the battle at Camp Keating
Soldiers from Bravo Troop, 1st Squadron, 91st Cavalry Regiment (Airborne), patrol outside of Forward Operating Base Keating in Nuristan province, Afghanistan, March 1, 2008. Photo by Staff Sergeant Brandon Aird. At The Best Defense, Tom Ricks published an “earwitness account” of the battle at Camp Keating in Kamdish in Nuristan province. The account comes via General Barry McCaffrey, and is given by an unnamed military officer serving in nearby Laghman province whose position is not identified, and I won’t speculate further. The full account is published below, with permission of Mr. Ricks. I’ll define the acronyms and other confusing terms…
-
Pakistan
Pakistani commandos ended the siege at Army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi; four terrorist and three hostages were killed. Dr. Usman, the leader of the Amjad Farooqi Group, was captured. The Air Force killed 19 Taliban fighters in strikes in South Waziristan. Police detained 121 Afghans in Peshawar and 35 suspected terrorists in Hangu.
-
Iraq
Sixteen Iraqis were killed in three separate bombings in Ramadi. Iraqi forces arrested 31 members of al Qaeda in Iraq in Mosul and Ninewa, four wanted men in Basrah and three more in Diyala. Two members of the Naqshbandiya group were killed during a premature detonation in Kirkuk.
-
Taliban commander involved in Nuristan attack thought killed
Afghan officials said Mullah Abdul Rahman Mostaghni, a district-level commander, was killed in a raid over the weekend. The US military has not confirmed the report.
-
Afghanistan
Taliban cannot be split from al-Qaeda, Obama warned
-
Al Qaeda
French al-Qaeda suspect ‘alluded to attacks’, magistrate claims
-
Pakistan
In the Pakistani mountains of Waziristan, young jihadis wait for martyrdom
-
Somalia
Somali Islamists threaten to attack Kenya
-
Observers: other networks still at large in Indonesia
-
Afghanistan
The UN’s top envoy said there was “widespread fraud” in the presidential election. Coalition and Afghan forces killed 12 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in Kunar, killed and captured “several” Taliban fighters in Helmand, detained 15 Taliban fighters in Kunduz, and captured four Haqqani Network fighters in Paktia. Afghan troops captured a Taliban spokesman and three fighters in Herat. A police chief and a policeman were killed while defusing a mine in Paktika.
-
Philippines
Father Michael Sinnot, a 78-year-old Irish priest, was kidnapped by six armed Abu Sayyaf terrorists at his residence in Pagadian City on Mindanao island. The gunmen forced Father Sinnot into a minivan before fleeing the area on a boat.
-
Thai Foreign Ministry argues that insurgency is not a religious conflict
-
Mali
Sources high in the Mali government have leaked that four Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb members, including a bomb maker, were released in exchange for the Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler earlier this year. The sources report that the Canadian government played no part in the release of the terrorists from the Mali prison.
-
Somalia
Intelligence officers intercepted a call made in Cape Town to al Qaeda cells in Somalia; the conversation confirmed a Somali plot to shift resources to South Africa and attack US interests. A Hizbul Islam commander was killed in Afgoye and a Hizbul officer in charge of finances was killed minutes later in Mogadishu. At least 15 people were killed after Shabaab attacked Hizbul Islam southwest of Kismayo.
-
Pakistani commandos break siege on Army headquarters
The Taliban penetrated security at Army General Headquarters and shut down operations for 18 hours. Twenty-five hostages were freed and three more were killed; four Taliban fighters were killed during the early morning assault.
-
Pakistan
The Amjad Farooqi Group took credit for the assault on the Army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi. Six soldiers and four terrorists have been killed; surviving terrorists have taken more than 10 soldiers hostage. The Taliban killed two workers during an attack on a NATO supply convoy in Khuzdar and lobbed mortars at a Levies outpost in Landikotal. The government freed three Swedish al Qaeda suspects, including a former Guantanamo detainee.
-
Pakistan
Rawalpindi attack a bid to shatter Army’s confidence
-
Pakistan
Pakistan plotted Kabul embassy attack: Afghanistan
-
Afghanistan
A dogged Taliban chief rebounds, vexing US
